Sept. 21, 1980. 

“My mother told me I should have died that day, but I didn’t because God had a plan for me.”

David Fesenmyer was six years old at the time. His family’s dairy farm in northwestern Pennsylvania had a major road running through it, separating the house from the barn. Dave went across the road to visit with his new albino rabbit in the barn and on his way back home he was hit by a car.

He landed on his head, resulting in a cracked skull and severe concussion. He had surgery at the local hospital and was then life-flighted to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. The only thing Fesenmyer remembers from that time was what his mother said to him when he got home.

“As the years went on, I was trying to figure out what this thing was that God was sending me to do,” he said. “I would put it to the back of my mind, not thinking about it, but every now and then it would pop up.”

Deacon David Fesenmyer receives the laying on of hands from Bishop Earl Fernandes. CT photo by Ken Snow

The accident and concussion resulted in a bumpy road for him in regard to his education. His multiple attempts at college work did not go smoothly, but on the bright side, during that time he met his wife, Tina.

After the couple married, they moved to her hometown of Rochester, New York, and that was when Fesenmyer learned about the diaconate. He was involved in their parish as an usher, Eucharistic minister and member of the Knights of Columbus, so he had a good relationship with the parish’s deacon. He felt comfortable enough to ask how a man becomes a deacon.

 “He said you have to be 35 – I was 31 at the time -- and then he told me you have to have a college degree. I told him I didn’t have a college degree and then he said, ‘Well, then, you’ll never be a deacon.’”

Fesenmyer accepted that it wasn’t possible for him to be a deacon, but still something tugged at him.

“That fire inside me should have gone out that very minute because I didn’t have a college degree, but it didn’t,” he said. “The fire inside just burned hotter and hotter and I waited and figured God will tell me what He wants.”

Deacon David Fesenmyer makes the promise of obedience to Bishop Earl Fernandes. CT photo by Ken Snow

The Fesenmyers moved to Columbus in 2005 and joined New Albany Church of the Resurrection, where David became friends with Deacon Byron Phillips, who shared with him that the Diocese of Columbus does not require a college degree for deacons.

“I said, ‘Ah-ha! Now I know why I’m here,” Fesenmyer said. It was when Tina converted that David entered the diaconate program. The couple has three children, Alyssa, 25, Clayton, 22, and Edwin, 12.

He said he has had great support from Deacon Frank Iannarino, the former director of the diocese’s formation program, and others involved with the diaconate program. 

“I’ll never be a theologian or a biblical scholar, but I don’t think that’s all that makes a deacon,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s part of the deacon role and I have plenty of information stored away. My ministry is with the people, dealing with issues of the heart, of the mind.

“People find it really easy to talk to me. People feel comfortable coming to me with their problems. I don’t understand it, but it’s not for me to understand.”